When we look at the world around us today, we use words like "fast-paced" and "rapidly changing." But most people use those words in reference to things that I can only categorize as superficial. When we say that we live in a fast-paced world, we mean that we wake up at 6:00, shower, shave, get dressed, get the kids up and dressed, feed everyone, let the dog out, pack up lunches, pay the electric bill, send the kids out the door to school, rush out the door to head to work -- oh, crap -- circle back around the block and run inside because someone forgot a school paper, grab up the sunglasses we left behind, race to the school to drop off the forgotten paper, punch into work with 2 minutes to spare...
When we talk about how rapidly the world is changing, we think about how we just bought our "new" cell phone 8 months ago, and now there's a new(er) model out that has twice the storage capacity for our MP3s and serves up mobile web pages in half the time. We remember that only a few years ago, when we paid our bills, we had to write them all out on paper checks, stuff envelopes, lick them (yuck), put stamps on them (more yuck), and set them out for a real live mailman to deliver by hand. Now, all we have to do is sit in front of our computer, push a few keys, click a mouse, and poof! they all go, instantly and magically moving our hard-earned money from our account to theirs.
I would like to think that I -- and you, as my faithful reader -- don't have such a shallow view of the world that surrounds us. I let those words dig a little bit beyond the mundane, into something a little deeper into our nature and culture.
It wasn't all that long ago that we measured our self-worth by the significance of our achievements, and in turn by the size of our bank accounts. We envied the man who received a formal education, worked his way up the professional ranks, became a doctor or lawyer or had an office in upper-level management. We wanted to know his secrets. What did it take to get there? What could we do to achieve that? What was it like to live in a house that big, with all those nice things, with the housekeeper and the personal trainer and the bank account full of numbers that we've only seen when playing Monopoly?
Meanwhile, we could only relate to the middle-aged factory worker, earning what barely equated to a living wage, facing the decision of which bill to let go past due when the next paycheck arrived because there just wasn't enough money to pay them all and still buy the new shoes that the oldest child needed for gym class.
When we talk about how rapidly the world is changing, we think about how we just bought our "new" cell phone 8 months ago, and now there's a new(er) model out that has twice the storage capacity for our MP3s and serves up mobile web pages in half the time. We remember that only a few years ago, when we paid our bills, we had to write them all out on paper checks, stuff envelopes, lick them (yuck), put stamps on them (more yuck), and set them out for a real live mailman to deliver by hand. Now, all we have to do is sit in front of our computer, push a few keys, click a mouse, and poof! they all go, instantly and magically moving our hard-earned money from our account to theirs.
I would like to think that I -- and you, as my faithful reader -- don't have such a shallow view of the world that surrounds us. I let those words dig a little bit beyond the mundane, into something a little deeper into our nature and culture.
It wasn't all that long ago that we measured our self-worth by the significance of our achievements, and in turn by the size of our bank accounts. We envied the man who received a formal education, worked his way up the professional ranks, became a doctor or lawyer or had an office in upper-level management. We wanted to know his secrets. What did it take to get there? What could we do to achieve that? What was it like to live in a house that big, with all those nice things, with the housekeeper and the personal trainer and the bank account full of numbers that we've only seen when playing Monopoly?
Meanwhile, we could only relate to the middle-aged factory worker, earning what barely equated to a living wage, facing the decision of which bill to let go past due when the next paycheck arrived because there just wasn't enough money to pay them all and still buy the new shoes that the oldest child needed for gym class.
In the course of the past few years, I have been witnessing what I can only describe as a change in our culture so profound that I can't find reference to anything like it in American history anywhere else in print. I know I've certainly never seen anything that even comes close to this. What's worse is that I don't even know what to think about it. But I know that I have to think about it, and that puts me a step ahead of most, I suppose.
There are influences all around the world that are pushing us to ignore those feelings of envy toward the upper classes. To set aside our desires to excel. No longer is it a measure of success to work our way up the corporate ladder and be rewarded with a hefty paycheck. To do so in today's world is a faux pas of galactic proportion. Indeed, these things are to be looked at as nothing short of evil. We should not work for our own benefit, but instead, we are expected to sacrifice the ever shrinking excesses we have in order to provide for those in need.
Yesterday, I made the comment that the reason this economy has gotten so much worse in such a short amount of time is that we have been trying to rectify the problems of a capitalist, free market society using solutions that are not compatible with those socioeconomic models. I was only partially correct in that assessment. Where I was wrong was that I implied that anyone was actively attempting to solve anything.
This fast-paced and rapidly changing world is one where capitalism no longer exists as we know it. We are to believe that this is a drive not toward socialism or communism or any other -ism with "old world" negative connotation. No, what we are facing is an all-American flavor of egalitarianism. The semantics are immaterial. What matters here is that we have to change how we value our society, our morals, and our measure of self-worth.
The conscious goal of every person that ever walks this earth is to live a full life. To that end, we must strive to be self-examined, self-actualized, and self-sufficient. Even if we don't use those words -- or even know what they mean -- we must achieve these things to realize our fullest potential and feel as though we have lived our lives to their fullest.
What boggles the mind here is that if success is now considered a social evil, how then are we to be expected to live our lives to the fullest? If your ambition is to be the best at anything, you can never reach your ultimate goal of living a full, happy life. If you are the fastest swimmer, the strongest weightlifter, the smartest game show contestant, the most popular actor, the funniest comedian... You should be looked at with as much contempt as if you had blatantly stolen millions of dollars from the hardest working, nearly starving, lowest classes of American society.
We can easily apply that to corporate America. Even the words "corporate America" instantly invoke visions of evil. The most successful discount department store, Walmart: evil. The most prolific fast food chain, McDonald's: evil. The most industrious of the automotive industry, GM: evil. The richest of the insurance companies: AIG: evil. The most recognized software company, Microsoft: evil. Evil, evil, everywhere!
In our world, success is not to be envied anymore; success is evil. We are now actively inventing ways to dismantle those who have forged their own successes, to pillage their coffers and "re-distribute" that wealth to its "rightful owners." If you're a multi-national corporate conglomerate or just an independent person with a knack for the stock market, it makes no difference. We will tax you more, we will take more, we will control more of you than of those who are without. We must be equal.
What does that equality mean for you? What does it mean to say that regardless of what you do, whether your work is lax and without passion or if it is industrious to excess and of superb quality, you will earn the same reward -- financial or otherwise -- as anyone else? What does it mean to you to know that no matter where your values might be, if you are successful at anything, you are being counterproductive to the ideals of an egalitarian society?
How can we ever live a full life again if doing so is wrong?
